Uzumaki Clan Chronicles
by TristenX
Summary: What if at the age of seven Naruto had found the only other living member of the Uzumaki Clan from Whirlpool Country. Rated M for possible future courses.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Naruto.

Seven years ago a monstrous beast know as the Kyuubi attacked Konohagakure. The legendary fourth Hokage sealed the beast away into the newborn child Naruto. Our story begins as we watch our young hero participate in the ninja academy.

THUNK, THUNK, THUNK…resounded over the grounds as three of the ten shuriken the blonde child threw hit the intended practice dummies.

"Loser!" yelled his classmates.

"Naruto, I told you to practice during your free time, why don't you ever listen?" scolded a teacher with an obvious scar across his nose.

"Iruka-sensei, I practiced for over four hours last night, it's…" he began.

"No excuses Naruto, everyone else at least got five if not more."

*Four hours later*

Naruto watched as the other kids left for home with their respective parents and sighed internally while holding back the usual pangs of loneliness. He wearily grabbed his shuriken an walked over to the training dummies and began to throw. He threw hundreds of shuriken with little to no obvious signs of improvement.

From over in the distance on a hilltop a man with short red hair and violet eyes watched as the blonde pushed himself to the point of exhaustion and though, _'Soon Naruto you will finally have part of your family back.'_ The man turned his back on the scene and walked back toward the large tower not to far away.

The man walked into the spotless reception area and stood quietly until the secretary looked up from her paperwork. She looked him up and down and tried to decide what could bring him to the office of the Hokage with that simple civilian look of navy blue pants and a light tan tee-shirt, but decide to ask him, "Is there anything I can help you with today sir?"

"Yes, if you don't mind," he replied politely, "I need an audience with the Hokage as soon as an opening is available."

"Well, he is very busy today sir, but he should be leaving in a few hours and we may be able to get you an opening for the last couple of minutes."

"That will be all that I require." he accepted as he sat down to patiently await the end of the Hokage's day.

*Three hours later*

The secretary looked in on the elderly Hokage, "Sir it is ten o'clock, I'm going home now and I suggest that you not stay up much longer."

"Oh, Akiko, I didn't know it was so late, thank you I was just about to finish up for the day." smiled the elderly leader as he looked up from his paperwork.

"By the way sir, there is a red haired man out here that wishes to speak to you, he has been waiting for three hours and I be he would appreciate it if you could spare just a moment." she informed her boss.

"Very well, send him in."

She waved at the man to come in. As he entered the office she shut the door and left on her way to her nice comfy bed that awaits her.

"Lord Hokage, my name is Kenshin and I am the last surviving member of a clan from Whirlpool Country, or at least that is what I had believed when news of my sisters death reached me seven years ago. Since that day I have traveled far in an attempt to see if there were any remnants of my clan left that I was unaware of. Then not more than a month ago I learned of a child that resembled my dead brother-in-law, this child was an orphan. I traveled all the way here, to Konoha, so that I could investigate this rumor, and what, you may ask do I find, but the true spitting image of him."

"And who, might I ask is your brother-in-law?" the old man questioned him with a look as if he knew what this stranger was about to say.

"Minato Namikaze, fourth Hokage and husband to my twin sister Kushina Uzumaki."

The old man's eyes grew to such a size that they threatened to pop out of their sockets, but he regained his calm composure, "Minato was never married to anyone of such a name," the old man started only to be interrupted.

"Don't bullshit me old man I was there at the ceremony same as you, I saw my sister marry the Hokage and you yourself resided over the small, secretive ceremony."

"Kenshin, it is you," he stated as the realization finally hit him, "I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you."

"After the ceremony, I left and continued my original purpose since I found my sister I figured that there were probably more of the Uzumaki clan that escaped the devastation that befell our country. However, I had no success. Then I heard of the fox's rampage and of Kushina and Minato's deaths. At that point I ran farther and farther away from Konoha in search of some remnants of my past home."

"I understand, losing the two of them was very painful for those of us as well, they are dearly missed in this village."

"So, I ask of you lord Hokage, to be reinstated as a Konoha ninja and to be named as Naruto's guardian as well."

"I see no reason why not, you are his only living blood relative. Would you also like the heirlooms that his father left him?"

"No, I will leave those in your care until he reaches the age of sixteen and can take over as true head of the Uzumaki Clan, since his mother was born first she was technically next in line to be the head so it is only fair that her son is as well."

"That is the answer I had hoped to hear, if you had said yes I would have denied you guardianship of Naruto believing that you only wanted the Hirashin and Rasangan for yourself."

"Naruto is the only family I have left, and besides I figured out the Rasnagan on my own from seeing Minato demonstrate it once and I've never had any affinity for raiton jutsu."

"You figured out how to perform the Rasangan… on your own?" asked a shocked Sarutobi.

To prove his point Kenshin held his hand out palm up and began to create the condensed ball of chakra. Hiruzen Sarutobi stared on as he demonstrated a technique that only two men to date knew how to use.

"I have a couple of more tests for you to perform, but your reinstatement as ninja looks promising."

*The next day*

The parents dropped their children off at the ninja academy the next day. It was seven in the morning and class was about to start when a disheveled Naruto walked into class wearing the same clothes he had worn yesterday but much dirtier from his long night of practice with the shuriken, earning several jeers from his classmates about his homeless appearance.

The children, with the guidance of Iruka, studied the history of the village, chakra, and discussed the importance of ninja tools in battle. In the afternoon they went outside for more practical application of the discussion on shuriken.

The first of the children up to throw was Shino Aburame, who hit seven out of ten with the shuriken. He was followed alphabetically until they reach Sasuke Uchiha who managed to hit vital spots with all ten of his shuriken and received praise from Iruka-sensei and from his numerous fan girls throughout the class, except for one dark haired, white-eyed girl.

Finally, it was Naruto's turn. He threw his first three shuriken and missed then proceeded with the next two and hit with both of them. He missed the next one and hit the next three in a row and missed the last one. Naruto jumped up and down in excitement that he managed to hit five which some of the other students had only managed to hit.

After the target practice, Iruka congratulated the students on the slight improvements and told them that they would do more target practice at the end of the week with the shuriken but to keep practicing. The kids then went and played on the playground. Naruto sat off to the side as he watched the other kids get taken home by their parents as they gave him the usual glares of hate and disdain. Then he received a sudden surprise when the Hokage showed up with a red headed man when everyone else had left.

"Hello Naruto, how has your day been?" asked the old kage.

"Not bad old man I managed to hit five targets today, that's two more than I hit yesterday."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that you are improving." he stated and then began again, "Naruto, do you wonder who this man I have with me is?"

"Should I?"

"Naruto," the red haired man said, "I am your uncle, I am the brother of your mom, I am Kenshin Uzumaki and we are all the family we have left."

Naruto fainted upon hearing this.

"Maybe we should have told him a little slower." stated Sarutobi

"Hmph" was all Kenshin replied.

Well, that is the end of my first chapter I hope you liked it.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the merchandising rights. Be thankful though I have all the artistic talent of a drunken ape so it wouldn't have looked half as good as it does.

Much thanks to the couple of people who reviewed on my first chapter. To those people and the couple of people who have story alerts I'm sorry that it took so long in updating I've been having some computer issues and been working.

***Thirty minutes later***

Naruto came back to the world of consciousness, sat up and began to rub his eyes. He noticed two men sitting no more than ten feet away from him looking at him intently. One he recognized as the old man hokage and the other he remembered was his new _uncle_, the word seemed strange to Naruto as he had never before thought that his parents would have brothers or sisters, he would have been grateful for just a mom and dad let alone any other family.

He rose to his feet and simply looked, first at the hokage and then to his red-haired _uncle_. He then asked with a bit of skepticism in his voice, "So if you're my uncle why haven't you been here before now?"

"Naruto," said the Kenshin as he rose up and put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "I didn't even know of your existence until I was traveling through the border to fire country, it was only by luck that I heard about you at that."

"Why wouldn't you have been in the country already?" asked the inquisitive blonde.

Kenshin's eyes filled with sadness as he struggled to think of the best way to answer the boy's question, "It is a long story and you must be hungry, why don't I tell you over something to eat, I'll buy. Now where would you like to go?"

"Ichiraku's Raman Stand!" shouted an excited Naruto.

"I hope you brought a lot of money Kenshin the kid eats more than Kushina and Minato combined." the old man warned him as Kenshin's jaw hit the ground.

***At Ichiraku's***

Naruto entered the restaurant with the hokage and his uncle in tow. They were greeted by Teuchi and promptly ordered their food. "Now I believe you would want me to answer your question, eh Naruto?" his uncle asked him.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically as he was trying to slurp up some of the noodles, which resulted in him slapping himself in the forehead with it. After the older men stopped laughing Kenshin began, "When I received word of you mother's death I was at the far border of the fire county on my way to help Konoha with the Kyuubi, when I heard of her and your father's death my heart stopped and the breathe caught in my throat. I then decided to search far and wide to see if I could find anyone from our homeland, so I ran. I ran as far from fire country as I could, never imagining that those two had had a child together, it had already been two years since they got married and me, your father, and even your mother were beginning to doubt their ability to conceive a child. Now, I'm glad that we were proven wrong. I had traveled far and wide, but to no avail, it seems that everyone else died when our home was invaded by Iwa-nin. I was on my way back to Konoha and running low on supplies. I stopped at the nearest town and happened to hear a couple of things that told me of your existence." Kenshin stopped and added, "That, in a nutshell, is what I've been doing for the last seven years."

"Uncle," Naruto said having accepted that his uncle did in fact care for him, "why were you returning to Konoha?"

"Yes, Kenshin," continued the hokage, "I have been wondering that myself."

"Well, after realizing that I was alone I was returning to Konoha in order to get reinstated as a ninja and serve the country that my sister died for in anyway that I could."

The old kage thought for a moment and got up. Turning to Kenshin and Naruto he said, "You'd better take Naruto back to his apartment and get to bed yourself, you reinstatement test begins tomorrow." With that final thought the hokage took his leave.

Kenshin looked to Naruto and gestured for him to lead the way. They paid Teuchi and headed back to the apartment.

The walk back to the apartment was rather uneventful as each walked in silence contemplating the way that their lives were now going to change because of the new family that each had gained today. Naruto was on cloud nine, he was excited to finally have someone who could do the little things like help him with training and pick him up from school like all the other families. Kenshin was grateful that he had found a part of his sister, his closest friend, the one person who had always been there for him, when everyone thought he had been a weak loser and mocked his attempts to become a ninja saying there was no way the shinobi villages would accept someone so weak that they couldn't master even the most basic chakra control exercises.

***The next day***

Kenshin awoke to the first few rays of sun coming in through the windows of his nephew's apartment. He sat up and looked around to see numerous piles of trash scattered throughout the place._ 'Wow, the kids messier than me and Kushina ever were' _he thought.

He created a couple of shadow clones to start picking up the trash as he wandered into the kitchen. He opened up the refrigerator door and was shocked to find that all the boy had was a carton of out dated milk and some orange juice. He opened up the cabinets next to the refrigerator and saw all of the instant ramen cups that the kid kept stocked. He sighed deep thinking that if the kid was going to be a ninja then he was going to have to get him started on a better diet. Not that there isn't anything wrong with ramen, I mean it is gods gift to hungry bachelors, but a ninja has to be in at least a little better shape.

He went into Naruto's room and poked the sleeping boy a few times. He opened his eyes and saw Kenshin. "Ugh," was Naruto's first intelligent thought of the morning as he looked at his uncle, _'Uncle'_, thought Naruto as his eyes went wide as he jumped from his bed and hugged the red haired man, "I thought it was all a dream," the kid cried, "I was worried that I was going to wake up and find that I was still alone."

Kenshin patted the child on the back in comfort saying, "Don't worry, you don't have to be alone anymore."

They got dressed and the pair headed out to get some breakfast before the reinstatement exam. Their walk to Ichiraku's was fairly uneventful as only a couple of the vendors were setting up this early in the morning, but the glares they shot Naruto's way didn't go unnoticed by the child's new guardian. He was going to have to ask the kage about that when he had a chance.

The two finally arrived at Ichiraku's and sat down. "Hey old man," Naruto shouted a little louder than need be, "I need six bowls of miso pork and," he looked at Kenshin, who finished, "I'll need two chicken and two miso pork as well."

Teuchi started the orders while the two got to know each other a little better. "So Naruto what were you hoping to do once you become a ninja?"

"I'm going to be the greatest hokage, so that the people of this village will finally have to show me some respect." Naruto said with a big grin on his face.

"It's great to aim for the title of hokage, but don't you think you should do it for a better reason?"

"Like what?"

"Well maybe like protecting the people of the village?"

Naruto looked at him for a moment and pondered at the thought. "I could do that," he replied, "but they would have to treat me at least a little bit better first."

Before Kenshin could ask what exactly he meant by that, Teuchi sat the bowls down in front of them. When he and Naruto had finished they were greeted by a man in battle gear and a mask walking in to the stand.

"Kenshin Uzumaki," the man started, " you are needed at the chunin exam stadium in five minutes."

"Thank you."

He paid the ramen chef and grabbed Naruto. "Hold on."

He shunshined to the stadium. When they landed in the middle of the stadium he let Naruto go and told him to sit in the stadium seats.

As Naruto was running off he was greeted by the hokage. The hokage came to Kenshin and began explaining the rules, "You will be in a one on one fight with one of the jounin of this village, you have one hour to survive and or win the battle. You are not allowed to kill him however. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir, but what initially determines my rank?" asked Kenshin.

"Myself and the other ninja council members will grade your performance on the three basic elements of ninja and then award your rank based on how well you do."

"I'm ready." He told the old man.

"Very well, you opponent is Hatake Kakashi." With that the kage jumped into the stadium seats to watch the match with the clan heads.

Kakashi wandered to the middle of the field, "Yo" was all he had to say as he dropped into a fighting stance.

Kenshin dropped into his own. The hokage shouted, "Begin".

The two circled around slowly looking for flaws in the others defense. Suddenly, they both leapt at each other. Kakashi lead off with a right hook followed by a strike with his left knee when Kenshin ducked under the first attack. Kenshin slapped the knee away and threw a jab at his opponent's stomach, only for Kakashi to block it. They settled for a moment and jumped away from each other and started flowing through hand signs.

"Fire style: Fire ball jutsu," shouted Kakashi as he launched a huge fire ball from his mouth.

Kenshin countered with, "Earth style: Mud dragon jutsu," as he slammed his hands on the ground, causing a dragon head to rise up and shoot three medium sized boulders at Kakashi. The first drove through the fire ball and Kakashi had to dodge all three of the boulders by jumping into the air.

Kakashi launched three shuriken and kunai at him as he reached the apex of his jump. Kenshin rolled to the side to avoid them and while Kakashi was still in the air pulled a shuriken out and threw it. He quickly ran through the hand signs and cast Shadow Shuriken Jutsu. Kakashi's eyes widened as the two shuriken turned into fifty. Kenshin wasn't surprised when he saw the form of Kakashi dissipate into a bunch of leaves as the shuriken hit him.

Kenshin looked around noticing that there were groupings of trees lined along several portions of the stadium walls. Kenshin used a few hand signs and used the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Him and his clones stood back to back and use a few more hand signs and aimed at some of the forest groping and shouted, "Wind style: air bullet", which was responded by some slightly widened eyes from the ninja council. Kakashi jumped out of one of the groupings and pulled up his forehead protector to reveal his Sharigan. Kakashi ran towards the group of Kenshins and began his assault with renewed vigor. The clones and Kenshin fought back and much to everyone's surprise three poofs of smoke quickly followed. It was soon back to Kakashi and Kenshin trading blows as they were left alone.

Kenshin jumped back and threw six shuriken in wide arcs toward the silver haired jounin. Kakashi chose to shoot straight up the middle and was caught by surprise as Kenshin crossed his arms bringing the ninja wire to bear around Kakashi. He brought his hands together in the tiger symbol and said, "Kakashi it has been a real honor, but I suggest you yield."

Kakashi shook his head no and Kenshin release Fire Style: Dragon fire jutsu. It traveled along the wires to Kakashi. Instead of taking the hit, however, he sunk into the ground. He reemerged trying to hit Kenshin with a flying uppercut to the chin. He dodged by tilting his head slightly and pushed chakra into his fist as he hit Kakashi in his exposed side. When Kakashi hit the ground, he found Kenshin on top of him holding a kunai to his throat.

"Winner, Kenshin Uzumaki." rang out the voice of the elder Sarutobi.

Kenshin stood up and helped Kakashi to his feet. After the scarecrow had covered his left eye, once again, he congratulated his opponent on the victory. They walked towards the stands while the council debated on the rank to give him. The two ninja stood patiently as the council members whispered amongst themselves.

The Hokage stood and announced, "Kenshin Uzumaki, we the ninja council of Konohagakure no Sato, have decided to reinstate you as a Jounin. Congratulations." he said as he handed over the leaf village head band. Kenshin bowed low in recognition of the honor he was being given. When he looked back up he was tackled from behind as Naruto rushed over to hug him.

"You have two days to celebrate and rest before you can start doing missions." the kage informed his new ninja.

Kenshin thanked him and left so that he could get Naruto to the academy.

Well there is chapter two. Sorry that the fight didn't last longer. Remember to read and review.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

It had been a week since Kenshin had been reinstated into active service and though he had done a few missions he hadn't done anything that required him to leave the village. Naruto couldn't have been happier, well maybe if Kenshin hadn't have made him change his diet from all ramen to a more balanced assortment of foods.

It was Friday afternoon and Kenshin was on his way to the academy to pick up Naruto so they could walk home together. He decided to get there a few minutes early, much to his surprise however, Naruto and a white haired teacher were already waiting for him.

"Mr. Uzumaki," the teacher greeted, "Naruto is having some trouble in class."

"What in?" Kenshin asked in reply.

"He can't form a single clone or do a henge correctly, not to mention that his throwing accuracy is terrible and he is barely passing his normal studies as well.

Kenshin began to wonder why after a couple of years in the academy was Naruto still having this much trouble, normally they would have given him some kind of tutor, maybe one of the current genin.

"Well, hasn't he been appointed a tutor?"

"Well, we tried but they all complained that he was an unruly little _child_, and that they wouldn't tutor him anymore."

Normally Kenshin was a pretty calm guy but hearing that these people weren't going to help his nephew, well that just pissed him off.

"What do you mean unruly, I have spent as much time as I possibly can with him since my return to Konoha and I haven't had a problem out of him."

"Well I'm just telling you what I was told," the teacher stated, "but if he doesn't improve soon the we are going to have to fail him out of the ninja academy."

Kenshin's eyes bulged knowing that that would put an end to Naruto's hokage dream, he vowed to himself that he would never let that happen.

"I'll be taking Naruto out of school for the next week so that I can help him improve I hope that will be okay with you?" Kenshin asked but the way his eyes looked told the teacher that it had definitely better be okay.

"Well," he began, "normally we would only allow that in the case of clan training and such so it looks like it won't be okay. No your going to have to train Naruto while he still comes to school."

"May I have your name, _sir_?" Kenshin asked

"I am Mizuki." he replied.

Kenshin nodded his thanks to the teacher, and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and began to lead him away from the academy.

"Uncle," Naruto addressed him, "I really do try I just have trouble with the chakra part."

"I know, don't worry we will get it straightened out."

"So you're not mad that my grades are so bad."

"Well, I understand the chakra part but the rest I'm pretty upset about."

Naruto looked down at his feet upset that he had disappointed his new family.

"But I guess well just have to work on it."

Naruto looked up happy that he didn't really seem too upset and was excited that someone was finally going to help him.

"Naruto?" Kenshin asked to get the star dazed kid's attention.

Naruto shook the stars out of his eyes and replied "Yes?"

"Did you really give all those tutors a hard time?"

"No, Mizuki was lying, I was good for all of them but they didn't teach me anything, they just sat there and gave my evil looks until it was time for them to go home."

'_I thought as much, what is going on in this village?' _Kenshin thought to himself.

"Where are we going?" Naruto asked, "this isn't they was home."

"I need to talk to the hokage about something, but you're going to sit outside while I do."

Naruto looked a little sad that he wouldn't get to see the old man but Kenshin's promise that if he was good he would take him out to get ramen latter.

When they finally reached the hokage's office, they found that they both had to sit outside the office while the hokage was in a meeting with someone. They waited for ten minutes before the door finally opened and the kage's two advisers walked out.

"Suki, send them in," called a tired sounding voice from inside the office.

Kenshin got up and began to walk into the office, but he was not blind to the looks given to Naruto from the receptionist and the advisers. Kenshin closed the door and sat down.

"Ah Kenshin, what can I do for you?"

"I am sorry to bother you lord hokage, especially when it looks as though your advisers have given you enough of a headache."

"It's quite alright, now I assume you had a better reason to come here than to check up on an old man. Especially since you left Naruto out in the hall."

"Why do the villagers give Naruto such awful looks, and do everything they can in order to make his life miserable?"

"You know how he has the Kyuubi inside of him and the fourth's request that he was to be seen as a hero?"

Kenshin nodded in understanding and the old man continued, "Well, no one is willing to see Naruto as a hero, all they see is the fox and remember how the it killed their family and friends and stole _him away from the village."_

_Kenshin pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration at the stupidity of the villagers, and stood up "Thank you, lord hokage, if the people of this village will not help him become a ninja then I will just make him into the number one ninja myself." Kenshin declared to the professor, "Lord Hokage I request that the Uzumakis be given clan status so that I may withdraw Naruto from the academy so that I may give him private tutoring."_

_The hokage pulled a couple of documents from his desk and proceeded to ask, "Do you have any kekkei genkais or jutsu specific to your clan?"_

"_The Uzumakis were a clan in their own country," Kenshin began, "but due to a naturally high chakra capacity we invented the shadow clone jutsu, that we gave to Konoha, for starters, we teach it to our children when they become ninja. I know the rasengan and it was Kushina that taught Minato every thing he knew about fuinjutsu. Also if that's not enough," Kenshin formed a hand sign with his hands clasped together with both index fingers sticking up and the hokage looked up in surprise._

"_It does exist."_

_The following day Kenshin walked to the academy on his own. The teacher standing outside asked him where Naruto was and reminded him that he did not have permission to withdraw him from the academy. Kenshin pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to the teacher. The teacher's eyes widened at the sight of the paper, as it was a decree from the hokage himself stating that the Uzumaki was officially a clan now._

"_Naruto will be back next week." Kenshin told the dumbfounded teacher before he shunshined back to the apartment to wake his nephew up._

"_I'm going to be late," a groggy-eyed Naruto stated as he jumped up out of bed._

_Kenshin put his hand on the child's shoulder and explained to him how he didn't have to go to school that week and everything that had transpired the previous night. "What are we going to do for training, uncle?"_

"_You will just have to wait and see when we get to the training grounds," Kenshin told the starry-eyed boy, "Now, hurry up and finish your breakfast, so that we can get going."_

_Naruto proceeded to scarf down the rest of the food and grabbed hold of his uncle. Kenshin shunshined them to training field seven. _

"_Now what we are going to do this week is work on your chakra control by doing something that your mom and me had to do when we were your age," Kenshin produced a leaf, "put this leaf to your forehead and keep it there with chakra, when you have that down we will start having you move around, throw shuriken and kunai, and finally start developing your taijutsu. At the end of the week we will test your control by working on the clone and transformation jutsu that you've been working on in school."_

_Naruto took the leaf and put it to his forehead and began to focus chakra to it, only to have it blow off. Then he tried again, only this time the leaf fell off and floated straight to the ground. Naruto proceeded to try for another thirty minutes before he finally got the hang of getting it to stay there._

"_I got it, I got it," shouted the excited Naruto. However, since he was no longer focusing on the leaf it fell off again._

"_Naruto, you've got to learn to concentrate, now sit back down and get the leaf resituated."_

_After doing what he was told Kenshin continued, "Now you have to stay like that until you can hold it there without trying, once you have that down we can continue on."_

_They sat there for the rest of the day like that before he got the hang of it. Afterwards Kenshin decided that it was time to head home and they would continue tomorrow._

_The rest of the week proceeded in the same fashion with little incident. As Kenshin taught Naruto to better concentrate he was able to hit all of the target's in throwing practice. Kenshin also started him in a fighting style called tae-kwon-do, telling him that mastering this style would put him on the road to being able to master any other style that he wanted. Finally the end of the week arrived and they had returned today to training ground seven._

"_Alright, Naruto, let see if you can do the henge properly."_

_Naruto proceeded to transform into the first, second, third, and fourth hokage with no detectable faults._

"_Well, it seems as though you got that one down perfectly, let's see that clone jutsu."_

_Naruto went through the hand signs and called out the name of the jutsu. A poof of smoke appeared and much to Naruto's surprise he saw five perfect copies of himself. The Narutos proceeded to jump up and down in excitement shouting, "I did it, I did it."_

"_Alright Naruto, that's enough, now we have to eat and get you to bed so you can go to the academy tomorrow," Kenshin said to the excited Narutos, "C'mon, I'll take you to Ichiraku's."_

_A/N: Sorry about the long update period, I'm like the ADHD poster kid of the year and had to go do like 5 million other things before I could get re-interested in my own story, which probably means it's extremely boring, but don't worry it will get better. Thanks to those who read and like my story I'll try to update more frequently. _


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I tried buying the rights to Naruto, but apparently if you need to ask you can't afford it. I hate being poor.

His days at the academy were finally starting to turn around. Naruto was excelling at everything, he had moved from the bottom of the class to about tenth. The teacher's were still trying to hinder any progress that the young blonde could possibly make but he had trained hard and gotten enough control over his chakra to do the basic school jutsu.

He could now hit nine out of ten during the throwing practice, do the henge, the clone, and substitution jutsu, and thanks to the concentration exercises he was even starting to get better marks in the classroom. The one area that was holding him back was taijutsu. While he could best any of the students using the academy style, which was similar to what Naruto was learning at home, he still couldn't go up against any of the clan children that had unique and slightly more powerful styles than his. Sure Shikamaru would just give up and Hinata didn't really want to hurt him, but the others weren't really that nice. Choji could beat him with sheer strength and pair that with his family's expansion jutsu then he was a really tough opponent. Kiba's speed and family taijutsu could overwhelm anyone that wasn't up to his par. Then there was Sasuke, the heart-throb of the class, his family style could only be described as incredible for his level.

Kenshin had arrived at the academy at the end of one of the days when they spar. Naruto walked out of the building and immediately spotted his uncle. He ran over to him and gave him a hug which was promptly returned.

"So, how was your day?" he asked Naruto as they walked away from the school.

"It was alright, up until taijutsu practice," Naruto said tentatively.

"Why, what happened?"

"Ever since I started getting better the teacher's keep pairing me with Sasuke, Kiba and Choji, and I can never beat them, their styles are just too overwhelming for mine."

"It sounds like you are just making an excuse. If anything you should be happy that your teachers are pairing you with people that are better than you," Kenshin told the confused young man, "that way you can eventually get better than them by fighting at a level that is beyond your current state."

The two continued back to their apartment, Kenshin in contemplative thought and Naruto imagining what it would be like to have one of those styles that could trump everyone else's.

Nothing had changed much over the next couple of days. At least, until Kenshin showed up on Friday afternoon to pick Naruto up from school. As the two were leaving Kenshin began to take a different route that usual. When Naruto asked where they were going he told him that he would find out when they got there.

It was a short while later, when they arrived at training field one, there was a green clad Jounin waiting for them in the middle of the field.

"Kenshin," he said in a booming voice, "I thought that your Flames of Youth had died out on your way here, and that you weren't going to make it. I hope my eternal rival's tardiness hasn't rubbed off on you." "Not at all Guy, I just had to pick little Naruto up from school."

Naruto stared at the guy he stood at just six foot and was clad head to toe in a god awful, green spandex suit, had a horrendous bowl cut, uber massive eyebrows.

"_Ah, so young Naruto is in awe of my awesomeness," thought Guy._

"_Guy, the reason I brought you out here is to ask if you would teach us your Goken style of fighting, we wish to add it as our clan's primary fighting style. Of course, we would give you all the glory of being the man who taught it to us."_

"_It would indeed be an honor to me and my future family if I were to teach it to you, but on one condition-"_

"_Guy we are not going to wear the green jump suits, and Naruto has some of the brightest Flames of Youth that I have ever seen."_

_Guy was a little disappointed about the jump suits but became extremely excited when he heard about Naruto's flames. He immediately agreed to teach them. They spent the rest of the day flowing through the basic katas and doing some light sparring with Guy._

_A couple of weeks had passed since the beginning of the guy's new taijutsu training regiment and Naruto had been improving by leaps and bounds but he still didn't have enough speed or skill to keep up with Kiba and Sasuke. He had been pulling Choji into draws and had even managed to win two of the bouts._

_It was a couple of hours after the end of the day at the academy, and Naruto, along with Kenshin were training with Guy, _

"_Leaf Hurricane," Naruto shouted as he attempted to get the hit on Guy during their sparring match._

_Granted Guy and Kenshin had slowed themselves down immensely but Naruto still couldn't nail this technique._

"_Guy," Kenshin began, "I think we should stop here, it won't do us any good to continue on until Naruto has developed the proper speed to manage the higher tiers of this style."_

"_I believe your right," Guy replied taking a nice guy pose, "though his flames of youth burn bright and he continues to push himself we must get his speed up."_

_Over the next couple of weeks Guy and Kenshin trained Naruto with various leg weights whenever they weren't on missions. School had continued to go well for Naruto. He was finally able to keep up with Kiba's speed and with his strength he was able to widen the gap between him and Kiba while shortening the one between him and Sasuke. _

_At the end of the third week of weight training Naruto was finally able to perform the 'Leaf Hurricane' and was starting to land blows on his two teachers, even though they were still holding back his teachers believed that his progress was incredible._

_Author Note: Sorry for the short chapter but I really wanted to get to the storyline instead of doing Naruto's academy years for 20 some odd chapters. Also Kenshin is my character so I will probably use him quite often but I will try to keep the spotlight on Naruto._


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Five years later.

Naruto and Kenshin are sparring in a deserted training ground. A flurry of punches and kicks as the two battle for ground and Naruto is pushed to his limits by his uncle, who could finally match their taijutsu teacher hit for hit in their family style. Naruto misses a blind spinning back fist and is caught off-guard when Kenshin catches him with a spinning, reverse roundhouse kick to the head.

"The two of you are on fire with the flames of youth," their sensei yells, "it will not be long until Naruto is up to the same level as Lee."

"Yosh, Gai-sensei, I look forward to having my own eternal rival," yells Rock Lee doing a fist pump as he jumps up and down excitedly.

As Naruto rises to face his uncle again an Anbu appears on the field, "Kenshin Uzumaki, you are wanted in the Hokage's office immediately." "Alright, Naruto that's enough for tonight, you have to go to bed early since the graduation exam is tomorrow," Kenshin tells him.

Before Naruto can reply the two of them shunshin off to the Hokage's office. Naruto turns to Gai and asks him what that was about and Gai tells him, "Probably to find out what genin team he is going to have this year, I really hope they pass this time."

"Who do you think I'll get teamed up with?" the energetic blonde asks eagerly.

"I can't really say, what with the way your uncle has been pushing the new team placement policy."

"What team placement policy?" asked Naruto.

"Well, originally the top student in the class got paired with the worst, so in your class Sasuke and Shikamaru would have ended up together. Also, any genin with the capability to be a good tracker got placed into the same squad so Kiba, Hinata, and Shino from your class would've ended up together. But I believe Lord Hokage said that he would use this years genin as a test for Kenshin's idea, so I really couldn't even begin to guess."

Elsewhere in the Hokage's office.

Many jounin were gathered around the room waiting to receive there genin squad assignments, none more anxious than the Uzumaki jounin, who desperately wanted his plan to go into action and be a success. The old Hokage sat down at his desk and looked around the room and began.

"Today we mark a day in the history of our village, since the first Hokage set up the traditional genin formation many years ago we have never deterred from it. We have always placed the worst student in the class with the best. That method gave us many great ninja and most notably the legendary sannin, but it was pointed out that the legendary sannin is the only real great example of this system working otherwise we end up with a few mismatched teams. What Kenshin would have us do is to balance out the teams so that none of them are completely specialized and the people on them are more equal in skill level. So we will let Kenshin choose his team so that we may seem what he means."

Kenshin slowly walks to the front of the crowd and bows before his leader, "Thank you for this honor Lord Hokage. I would like Hinata Hyuga, Shikamaru Nara, and Naruto Uzumaki."

"Explain your thoughts behind how this will be a balanced team." the Hokage ordered.

"Well, despite Shikamaru's low test grades, I'm betting on the fact that he's all the tactical genius that his father is just simply for the fact that I've never seen a Nara that wasn't at least somewhat tactically gifted. Hinata will be the teams tracker, and given the strict Hyuga chakra control training she will probably become the teams medic. Lastly, there is Naruto, he will be the front line offensive force for the cell."

"While I agree with your explanation I can not allow you to take Naruto on your team since you are related to him people will believe that he is getting treated with favoritism."

"Sir, with all due respect, the reason I want Naruto on my team is the same as why that damn council wants Kakashi to train Sasuke. I know more about his potential bloodline that any other person and I swear on his father's grave that I will not show favoritism to him."

The Hokage bowed his head in ascent, "Fine, I will let you have this team. Everyone else will have to wait ten minutes while I assemble the rest of the teams."

After the Hokage was finished, he called the jounin up to his desk to collect their respective teams. Afterward dismissed them so that they could make the proper preparations for the real genin test.

-The next day-

Naruto rushed to class thinking that he was going to be late for this important day. The day he would graduate from the academy and finally become a ninja. Kenshin was not home to wake him like he normally would be. Naruto had assumed he was called away on assignment.

He finally made it into the classroom with three minutes to spare. Spread out along the wall behind Iruka were several of the village's Jonin. Naruto waved excitedly as he spotted his uncle.

"Settle down class," Iruka stated over the excited murmurs of the class, "We all know why you are here today. You are about to join the ranks of ninja who protect this village. You must uphold yourself with the utmost dignity. Now I'm sure you are all wondering who you instructors are, so I will read off the teams, when I call your name please go to follow your instructor.

"Team One, Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga, and Shikamaru Nara, under Jonin Kenshin Uzumaki" the students got out of their seats and follow the red-haired man out of the class room.

"Meet me at training ground one in ten minutes ," he told them as soon as the were out of earshot of the classroom, before shunshining away.


End file.
